-
missouri compromise
At the Nashville Convention, delegates from nine Southern states gather and agree to defend the rights of slaveholders and to adopt what they consider a moderate position by extending the 36' 30" dividing line of the Missouri Compromise, actions rendered moot by the Compromise of 1850 and, later, by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. -
fugitive slave act
Fugitive Slave Act provides for the return of slaves brought to free states. -
shadrach minkins
Shadrach Minkins,an African American working as a waiter, is seized by slavecatchers in Boston; Richard Henry Dana, Jr., tries to free him by legal means, but first Shadrach is rescued by a group of African Americans. -
gadsden purchase
Gadsden Purchase gives the U.S. a strip of land in what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona. (Map) -
anti-slavery mob
Wendell Phillips and others lead anti-slavery mob to attack a Federal court house in Boston that holds Anthony Burns, a fugitive slave. -
attempt to purchase cuba
Minister to Great Britain James Buchanan, Minister to France John Y. Mason, and Minister to Spain Pierre Soulé meet in Ostand, Belgium and Aix-le-Chapelle to draw up the Ostend Manifesto, an attempt to purchase Cuba from Spain that emphasizes Cuba's strategic importance and threatens to take it by force should negotiations fail. The public reaction to this move, which would presumably have added Cuba as a slave state, forces its chief supporter, Secretary of State William Marcy, to repudiate the -
"know-Nothing"
"Know-Nothing" nativist party opposing immigration and Catholics endorses the Kansas-Nebraska act at its convention in Philadelphia and nominates former president Millard Fillmore as its candidate. -
dred scott decision
Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court. After being brought to free territory by his owner, Scott sued for his freedom, but the court ruled that he had never ceased to be a slave, denied that he was a citizen, and denied him the right to sue. -
Harper's ferry
John Brown leads an armed group of 21 to seize the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, is captured, and is executed.